When six representatives of #occupyjustice went to meet the Prime Minister at Castille on Wednesday, they read out a statement.
Shock! Horror! They went to meet the Prime Minister and did not speak off the cuff? They did not just sit down and spew whatever came to mind? “Scandalous!” said the trolls, in their droves, on Facebook, posting under the news link, all repeating the same thing in different degrees of language profanity.
Our priorities of what shocks the nation have not only gone haywire, they’ve gone utterly bonkers. Six admirable women, who are not political party activists, came together under the umbrella of politics with a small ‘p’ united by one thing: wanting to see justice in the society they live in.
They had a point to make and they wanted to make it as clear as possible. And of course, unless you are a pompous prat, or you’re one of those aspiring politicians who have been rehearsing speeches in front of the mirror since the age of six, then you prepare yourself well for a meeting with the Prime Minister and write down what you have to say.
And you know what? We should be grateful to them. For once, facing the cameras we did not have people spouting circular arguments, verbose prose and cumbersome political-lingo. These women spoke with logic but also with passion. They spoke from the heart and said what they thought, spurred only by the fact that they’ve had enough. They decided to take action because something terrible happened in the country and because the rest of us are in a state of comatose.
We will one day be thankful to them, at the very least for one reason: because they are showing the younger generation that “Hey, it’s okay not to agree with what the government is doing and it’s okay to peacefully protest about it”. And these women are showing the children of today that you should never hide and cower, but stand up and fight for your principles. Maybe the under 12s of today will as a result grow up to be wiser adults and will be more of watchdogs on their governments than we could ever be.
These women are showing the children of today that you should never hide and cower, but stand up and fight for your principles
Which brings me to the second point. “Someone clearly wrote it for them,” sang all the trolls, implying that it must have been some male who wrote down what they had to say. This is, reader, the Malta we live in, in 2017. We believe, no matter how liberal we try to portray our nation, that brain cells and women simply don’t go together, because, you know, “Women just talk about make-up ha ha ha.” I always fail to understand why on earth do we boast so much about the number of ever-increasing female students, and why do we prattle all the time about wanting more women in the labour market, if we still find it incredulous that women can actually – what’s the word we want here?… erm, yes – think. Dare we hope that the National Council of Women will wake up from its nap and write something about this matter on its fluffy pink website?
Third point. “Imbasta, they did not even want to discuss with the Prime Minister,” said the trolls about the #occupyjustice women. As a friend of mine said, when she read the people’s reaction: “What on earth did they expect them to discuss? This is not a collective agreement!”
Ah, maybe they were meant to sit at opposite ends of the table and say: “Okay we want two thirds House majority, and you want none. Shall we meet somewhere in between? Or perhaps go for four-fifths or seven-eights?”
And then, they would sip some tea and bring up the topic of the Police Commissioner, you know, the one who has not even taken any investigative action on the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff and his top Minister involved in the Panama Papers scandal. “Yes Prime Minister,” the women were meant to go. “We want him out, but you don’t want him out. Let’s discuss this… hmm… maybe he can stay on part-time?”
After shaking hands on that and eating a biscuit, then they were meant to talk about the other pending issue, the Attorney General. “You know, the one whose remit it was to prosecute cases of alleged money laundering by people close to you Prime Minister? We want him impeached, but we know you don’t want that so shall we just get him in here and throw peaches at him?” Wouldn’t that have been a lovely discussion?
The truth is that there is a time for discussion and a time for action. When a journalist has been assassinated, there’s nothing to talk about really. And whichever way the parrot trolls try to spin it, that is what these women are asking for. And we should all be joining them.
Justice must be served.
krischetcuti@gmail.com
Twitter: @krischetcuti